The court heard there had been no safety planning before the beam was lifted.

Industrial Magistrate Stephen Lieschke was critical of Mr Maione and ordered he publish public notices about the company's involvement in the matter.

"In my opinion, Mr Maione and Ferro Con have taken positive steps to avoid having to accept most of the legal consequences of their criminal conduct as determined by the course of justice. This has occurred through Mr Maione successfully calling on an insurer to pay his fine," the magistrate said.

"In my opinion, Mr Maione's actions have also undermined the court's sentencing powers by negating the principles of both specific and general deterrence. The message his actions send to employers and responsible officers is that, with insurance cover for criminal penalties for OHS offences, there is little need to fear the consequences.

"I add that the court was faced with the reality that an insurance company has granted indemnity to Mr Maione and Ferro Con, and that the court has no ability to challenge that fact. Whether such indemnities should be outlawed under the current act and under the new act are policy considerations for Parliament. I make these observations to explain the legal significance of these surprising arrangements."

Mr Lieschke said Mr Maione had expressed regret and remorse over the offence and the company, which was now in liquidation also had expressed its regret, but he said Mr Maione's actions "are so contrary to a genuine acceptance of the legal consequences of his criminal offending that they dramatically outweigh the benefits to the justice system of the early guilty plea and statement of remorse".

He declined to grant any reduction of penalty and fined Mr Maione and the company $200,000 each, as well as court costs.

The court awarded the maximum $20,000 in compensation to the victim's family, which included $14,000 to the dead man's young son.

Insurance made fines meaningless, said union

Outside court, union official Aaron Cartledge said the fines had effectively been rendered meaningless.

"We see this as a fairly serious development in the industry. It might be a cheaper option to go out and get insurance rather than have a good safe systems of work and good equipment, because that's a costly exercise, and the right safety on the job and if you can just go out and get insurance then that's a very worrying trend for us," he said.

Mr Cartledge urged the Government to close the loophole in legislation.

"I see this as something that could end up having more fatalities on jobs because it's just a cheaper option rather than providing the right safety equipment and systems of work," he said.

The ABC understood the only excess on the insurance policy would be $10,000 on the court-ordered compensation.

Mr Cartledge said that was a problem.

"What's the point? It could've been a million-dollar fine, it wouldn't have mattered if the insurance is going to pick up everything but a $10,000 hit from the employer, so it doesn't matter what the fine is if you've got the insurer and that's the problem."

Mr Cartledge said safety issues about the use of soft slings had not yet been resolved.

"Soft slings are still out there being used," he said.

"There have been other fatalities since, around the country, using similar slings and yet they're still being used on major building sites still not being installed properly and still being used in the wrong manner."

Mr Fritsch's mother, Charmaine Ferraro, spoke with reporters as she left the court.

"I'm just really happy with what the judge has decided," she said, but indicated the compensation was little but a token.

"That doesn't mean anything. Nothing is going to bring Brett back."

Ms Ferraro said she hoped public statements Mr Maione will be forced to publish would send a message to other employers.

"I hope it does, something good has got to come out of all of this," she said.

SafeWork SA executive director Bryan Russell said the court had given a clear message to employers of their legal obligations.

"This tragedy highlights the duty of care that must be taken to ensure that workplaces comply with their safety obligations so that every worker can go home safely at the end of a work day," he said. "One death is too many."